Employee Spotlight

Ryan and Nate Wiechart are brothers that both liked working on cars. They had a cousin who attended Vantage who told them all about it. After they visited on Sophomore Visitation Day, (two years apart) they found themselves enrolled in the Automotive Technology program. Ryan said, "I knew I wanted to work with cars, so coming to Vantage would give me a head start on my career." After graduation, Ryan attended the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) and received his associate’s degree in High Performance Technology in 2003. He began working full-time at Statewide Emergency Products in the spring of 2004. In May of 2005, days after graduation, Nathan joined him. Both are certified emergency vehicle technicians. In their jobs, they install lights, sirens, radios, computers canine cages, cameras and global positioning systems on police cars for the state of Ohio and some in Indiana. Nate said, "I use what I learned at Vantage every day on my job. Attending Vantage was a great experience for me. I liked what I was doing and I wanted to do well, so my grades improved." Ryan feels much the same way. "I learned so much in Auto Tech because of the hands-on experiences. It really added to my existing knowledge. It was great to meet a lot of new people from different schools too." Ryan and Nate both competed in SkillsUSA contests and were Student Ambassadors while at Vantage. Vantage graduates Bob Freeman (’81) and Mike Kreischer (’02) also work at Statewide Emergency Products.